CVE-2026-20083 Denial of service in Cisco IOS XE Software
An authenticated local attacker can cause a denial of service on Cisco IOS XE devices by sending a malformed SCP request via SSH.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-20083?
CVE-2026-20083 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software, published on 25 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) server feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with low privileges to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of a malformed SCP request. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by issuing a crafted command through SSH. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition.
Weakness: CWE-235
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20083?
How do I fix CVE-2026-20083?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20083 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-20083 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20083 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-74wh-qxxr-jvr4.